390. 
391. 
124. 
392. 
125. 
TYRANNIDZAE —TYRANNINZ: TYRANT FLYCATCHERS. 443 
E. ham’/mondi. (To Dr. W. A. Hammond, U.S. A.) Hammonn’s Frycatcuer. Dirty 
LirtLe Fiycatcurr. Above, olive-gray, decidedly grayer or even ashy on the fore-parts ; 
the whole throat and breast almost continuously olive-gray but little paler than the back, the 
belly alone more or less decidedly yellowish ; wing-markings and eye-ring dull soiled whitish ; 
bill very small, and extremely narrow, being hardly or not 0.20 wide at the nostrils ; this distin- 
guishes the bird from all but minimus and obscwrus; under mandible usually blackish ; tail usu- 
ally decidedly forked, more so than in other species (though in all of them it varies from slightly 
rounded to slightly emarginate) ; outer tail-feather usually whitish-edged externally (a character 
often shown by trailli and minimus), but not decidedly white. About the size of minimus ; 
wings and tail relatively longer. Plains to the Pacific, U. 8., and British Am. This is the 
Western representative of minimus, but is tangibly distinct; the general tone of coloration is 
heavy, fall specimens in particular giving somewhat the effect of a dirty flaviventris; the tiny 
bill is a good mark. Nesting substantially like minimus; eggs white, unmarked. Note ee 
soft pit.” 
E. obscu’rus, (Lat. obscurus, dark.) Wnricut’s FtycatcHer. Gray LITTLE FLYCATCHER. 
Colors not very tangibly different from those of trailli or minimus, but outer web of outer tail- 
feather abruptly white in decided contrast. General tone quite gray; gray below quite across 
breast, giving the effect there of Contopus richardsoni; under mandible obscured; eye-ring and 
wing-edgings quite whitish. General dimensions approaching those of acadicus, owing to 
length of wings and tail. Length doubtless up to 6.00, and extent to 9.50; wing 2.66—3.00 ; 
tail 2.50-2.75; tarsi about 0.75; bill about 0.50, extremely narrow (much as in Sayiornis 
fusca), its width at the nostrils only about 4 its length. The bird looks singularly like the 
Western Contopus, though of course immediately seen to be Empidonax. Rocky and other 
mts. of the West, N. to 49°, in woodland, groves and thickets. To complete the analogies 
between the Eastern and Western E’mpidonaces, this may be considered to represent acadicus. 
Nesting, however, substantially as in minimus: a neat, compact, deep-cupped nest in crotch of 
a sapling, and eggs 3-4, white, unmarked, but large, 0.75 X 0.58. Note ‘a weird sweer,” ‘a 
soft liquid whit.” (E. obscurus, E. wrightti, Barrp, 1858 ; but qu. Tyr. obscura Sw. 18277) 
MITRE/PHANES. (Gr. pirpn, mitre, a head-dress; gaive, I appear.) Lrrrue Burr FLy- 
CATCHERS. Coronal feathers and rictal bristles longer than in Hmpidonax, and general cast of 
the plumage buffy or fulvous rather than olivaceous ; otherwise (our speciés at any rate) not 
different from Hmpidonax. Several Mexican species, one reaching our border. _ . (Mitrephanes 
CouEs, 1882, vice Mitrephorus Scu., 1859, preoccupied.) 
M. ful'vifrons palles/cens. (Lat. fulvifrons, fulvous-fronted ; pallescens, growing pale.) 
LitTtLe BUFF-BREASTED FLYCATCHER. Above, dull grayish-brown tinged with olive, par- 
ticularly on the back ; below, pale fulvous, strongest across the breast, whitening on the belly ; 
no fulvous on the forehead; sides of head light brownish-olive ; wings and tail dusky, outer 
web of outer tail-feathers, edges of inner primaries except at the base, and tips of wing-coverts, 
whitish ; iris brown; bill yellow below, black above; feet black. Length 4.75 ; extent 7.33 ; 
wing 2.12; tail 2.00; tarsus 0.55; middle toe and claw 0.45; bill 0.40. New Mexico, Ari- 
zona, and southward. (Hmpidonax pygmeus Couns, Ibis, 1865, p. 537; Mitrephorus palles- 
cens Cougs, Proc. Phila. Acad., 1866, p. 68. My original specimens, affording the descriptions 
quoted, and the first known to have been taken in the United States, do not appear to be 
specifically distinct from Muscicapa fulvifrons of Giraup (B. of Tex., 1841, pl. 2, f. 2); they 
are clean spring birds, and the species is more fulvous in fall plumage.) 
ORNITH'IUM. (Gr. épvibtoy, ornithion, dimin. of ps, a bird.) BEARDLESS FLYCATCHERS. 
General aspect of Empidonax, but remarkably distinguished by the parine shape of the bill, 
and almost entire absence of the rictal bristles so conspicuous in most genera of Tyrannide, 
though a few slight ones may be seen on close inspection. Bill much shorter than head, stout, 
compressed, not depressed as usual in Zyrannide, with high-ridged arched culmen and scarcely 
